Today The Two Man Power Trip is joined by legendary Independent wrestling standout and leader of the original “Indy-boom”, Tom Carter AKA Reckless Youth. Covering his career that included being #50 on the PWI 500 in 1998 through all of his stops along the way and digging deep into his greatest matches John and Chad find out just why Tom Carter was as advertised and truly a “technician” in the squared circle. Strap in, it’s another in the TMPToW Epic Series.
Full Episode Download Link: http://tmptow.podomatic.com/entry/2015-12-07T21_00_00-08_00
Reckless Youth: “Cesaro Could Make A Broom Stick Look Good” https://youtu.be/fDYRId5ewPI
Still watching wrestling following his retirement:
No, actually not really too much. When I say not really too much, I just picked up Ring of Honor wrestling. As far as WWE I really don’t follow it too much. It seems to me like every time I breeze past it that somebody is talking and I was always a fan of wrestling. I posted on Facebook a few months ago I said watching those guys (in Ring of Honor’s) work actually made me want to wrestle again and I can remember when I was wrestling few and far between were there times (and I want to say this carefully) where I could become a fan again. Once you are in the business and you are exposed to the business on a regular basis I don’t want to say it loses its luster but you kind of know all of the magic tricks and it doesn’t have the same type of appeal. For whatever reason watching Ring of Honor it was bringing me back to that place. One of the few times that I became a fan of wrestling again after all these years was having the pleasure of watching Steve “William” Regal wrestle Chris Benoit at the Brian Pillman Memorial which I believe was in 2000. I just remember watching them work and just being like this is why I became a wrestler and this made me proud to be a wrestler.
Shedding “Reckless Youth” & Becoming “Technician” Tom Carter:
It was a couple of things that were going on. I expected when I got picked up with the WWE that they would actually had changed my character because Reckless Youth was kind of getting long in the tooth. I was a little bit older and it was getting a little bit more difficult to continue with that Reckless Youth character. I was expecting the company to change that character and nothing really ever came within character development that we came to an agreement on. There were an idea or two floated around but I think they were floated around in jest. Right after I left WWE I got injured doing an NWA show down in Florida and I didn’t wrestle for over a year and I didn’t think I was going to wrestle again. That’s when I started Chikara with Mike Quackenbush and then I came back to wrestling and realized that my style had to change and I thought it was a great opportunity to change that style and when I was talking to Gabe (Sapolsky) at Ring of Honor and they wanted to do this pure wrestling division, I thought it was a great opportunity for me to really change my style and I believe it was Gabe that came up with that moniker if I am not mistaken.
Working in the “Pure Championship” division in early Ring of Honor and his short lived run in ROH:
For me personally there were a lot of things going on right before the Doug Williams match. My child was born and right after the Doug Williams match my back injury which would flare up every once in a while did and I can remember by the time I got home from the Doug Williams match I couldn’t get out of my car. My back was messed up so bad I think I was laid up for a couple of days and so me being with Ring of Honor that pulled me out for a little while and that was one of my last matches that I did while I was consistently wrestling. I just recognized that I had a family to provide for and that it was difficult especially with my injury that I had to look at opportunities differently. My time in Ring of Honor I really enjoyed and I liked the direction they were going with that Pure Wrestling division and they were lining me up against some great guys.
Training with Robbie Brookside in Memphis:
I knew of Robbie Brookside’s work because I followed the guy but when Regal told me he was coming to Memphis that was just great. Not only did I get to train with him but I got to work with him in the ring and doing live shows. There is a dynamic of when you train with someone is one thing and when you are out performing with them it’s at a whole new intimate layer between the two of you. The experience with him, it was great and a learning experience in the ring and outside the ring. They ran a good ship when we were training and I’m not surprised to hear that both of them are training and at the training center facility and that Brookside is where he is and deservedly so.
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Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
